Old and Irresponsible

When all the nasty rumors were swirling during the 2000 campaign that Bush has been a cokehead, his glib reply was “When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible”. When that didn’t make the rumors go away, he made up some bullshit about being able to pass a background check (which basically means he hadn’t done anything in 25 years). Well, it looks like the old rumors are back again :

Shocking accusations that President Bush snorted cocaine at Camp David when his father was in the White House have surfaced in a racy new book by celeb author Kitty Kelley about the powerful family.

“Bush did coke at Camp David when his father was president, and not just once either,” Kelley quotes former sister-in-law Sharon Bush as saying, according The Daily Mirror of London.

The president first dabbled in drugs in the mid-1960s while at Yale and later snorted cocaine or smoked marijuana while in the National Guard, according to Kelley’s new biography, “The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty.”
. . .
An admitted alcoholic, Bush started drinking to overcome shyness, the Mirror reports.

“Poor Georgie. He couldn’t relate to women unless he was loaded,” former schoolmate Torbery George said in the book.

Now I personally think that drug use isn’t usually that big a deal. As long as you’re not inadvertently supporting some sort of organized crime ring with your drug money (which is probably the case with coke, but I digress), I don’t really see the problem with decriminalizing most drugs.

But I do have a big problem with the leader of the free world being high as a kite while making important decisions. If these rumors are true, then we’ve got a president who’s been lying to the American public about a past (and possibly present) dependency on drugs and/or alcohol. I don’t mean for this to be snarky, but take a look at this and tell me if it reminds you of someone :

Symptoms of alcohol use:

  • slurred speech
  • lack of coordination
  • decreased attention span
  • impaired judgment

    • While some may decry this as invading in Bush’s personal life, there are important things to keep in mind :

  • Bush is a public figure now. Just like Clinton’s sex life wasn’t off-limits, this too goes with the territory.
  • Bush’s state of mind while on the job is relevant to whether or not he deserves a second term. Has he been making important decisions while his judgment is impaired?
  • If Bush has a drug or alcohol dependency and is keeping it a secret, who else knows about it? Could Bush’s secrecy make him vulnerable to exploitation by others who threaten to reveal his secret(s)?

    While it’s tempting to avoid bringing these issues up in the midst of an election (nobody likes to be accused of mud-flinging), in an election in which the senate nominee’s campaign has been partially derailed over questions about where he spent Christmas Eve, the persistent questions about Bush’s vices and how they relate to his ability to perform his job demand answers.


    • posted by greg on September 7, 2004 @ 10:49 am

    2 comments

    1. The importance of W’s substance sniff abuse habits cannot be misunderestimated. Pulp Fiction was on cable the other night, and in the words of Mia Wallace: “I said GODDAMN!”

      Comment by jeff — September 7, 2004 @ 12:58 pm

    2. The republicans have set the gold standard in unethical campaign tactics and it works. So if Bush has been doing drugs, lying about doing drugs, whatever, let’s talk about it. How about a whispering campaign suggesting he is a pedophile? Nothing is too down and dirty and if the Democrats want to beat the republicans, they better get in the gutter with them and quit worrying about hurting someone’s feelings.

      Comment by Becky — September 7, 2004 @ 2:36 pm

    Copy link for RSS feed for comments on this post

    Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.